B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

‘Electoral reforms need of the hour in India’
Bathinda, November 24
“The universities in the country will have to produce people who know the art of playing the game of democracy. We don't need varsities that produce only scientists or CEOs,” said Prof Mool Chand Sharma, the vice-chancellor of the Central University of Haryana and former vice-chairperson, University Grants Commission (UGC). Prof Sharma was at the Central University of Punjab to deliver a lecture on the occasion of Constitution Day.

Cancer detection camp organised
Moga, November 24
The Roko Cancer Charitable Trust, an international organisation based in London, has begun organising free cancer detection camps in Punjab with the help of NRIs, which would continue till the end of April, next year.

School gets its own building after 13 yrs
Abohar, November 24
The government primary school that was razed to the ground by the local Improvement Trust in 1998 to raise a commercial market opposite the Children's Park resumed functioning in its own building today.

Trains cancelled
Bathinda, November 24
In view of the fog, the railways has decided to cancel and partially cancel many trains that pass through Bathinda. As per the railway sources, train no. 19771-19781 that run between Jaipur and Amritsar will remain cancelled between December 20 and January 31, 2012.

‘Electoral reforms need of the hour in India’
Megha Mann
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 24
“The universities in the country will have to produce people who know the art of playing the game of democracy. We don't need varsities that produce only scientists or CEOs,” said Prof Mool Chand Sharma, the vice-chancellor of the Central University of Haryana and former vice-chairperson, University Grants Commission (UGC).

Prof Sharma was at the Central University of Punjab to deliver a lecture on the occasion of Constitution Day.

Prof Sharma, who has also worked at the Supreme Court as a Joint Registrar for Research for about five years, said that electoral reforms are a must in the country. And to introduce these reforms, the younger generation and the middle class needs to be sensitised. “But the politicians would never usher in these reforms or even allow them. Since the 12th Lok Sabha, there have been 542 Members in Parliament, whereas during this period, the population of the country has increased by leaps and bounds and the voting age has been brought down to 18 years,” Sharma said.

He added that one Member of Parliament (MP) representing 12 lakh people is not a healthy trend and needs to be changed urgently.

Raising the issue of the delimitation of constituencies in the country, he said that though the boundaries have changed, the number of constituencies remained the same. “What difference does it make? The delimitation should have been in terms of the number of voters and not geographical boundaries,” said Sharma, who has been a research adviser with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for three years.

Talking about the Indian constitution, he said that it is the only constitution to be specific, inclusive and flexible. “For the last 62 years, our constitution has maintained dignity of democracy, where even a developed country like America failed. Ours is the only system wherein judges are appointed on the basis of merit unlike America, where the yardstick of appointing the judges is his or her affiliation to the political parties,” Sharma said.

He observed that in the last 62 years, the Indian constitution has scripted a success story, yet it is reaching the crossroads.

Highlighting great disparities prevalent in society, he said we still do not have an answer as to why 61 Indians with billion of dollars hold key to one-third GDP growth of the country, whereas 80 per cent of the Indians spend Rs 20 daily. “Though we have a deficit budget of Rs 4 lakh 53 crores, we have given tax concession to the rich worth Rs 14 lakhs 60 crores,” he said.

Cancer detection camp organised
Kulwinder Sandhu/TNS

Moga, November 24
The Roko Cancer Charitable Trust, an international organisation based in London, has begun organising free cancer detection camps in Punjab with the help of NRIs, which would continue till the end of April, next year.

The first camp was organised at Dharamkot in Moga district. It was inaugurated by Jathedar Tota Singh, former minister and senior leader of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Dharminder Dhillon, project officer of the trust, while talking to The Tribune, revealed that as many as 157 camps would be organised in the state in the next few months. Of this, 90 camps would be organized in the Malwa region and the rest of the 67 camps in the Majha and Doaba belts.

On the first day of the camp, as many as 300 women and 130 men were checked. Mammography was conducted on 45 women, he said. "On Friday, the camp will be organized at Ramuwala and on Sunday at Gholia Khurd village in Moga district," he said.

Speaking to The Tribune from London, Kulwant Dhaliwal, the global ambassador of Roko Cancer, revealed that his organization would soon sign a memorandum of understanding with the Punjab government for detecting cancer patients and creating awareness among the masses.

"Not only cancer, we will also hold multiple camps to diagnose blood pressure and diabetes as well because the rural folk are ignorant about these health problems that becomes fatal leading to thousands of deaths every year," he said.

It may be mentioned that Roko Cancer had conducted mammography on 4,934 women in association with the health department and 4,233 women on its own and with the help of the NRIs. Of these, 452 and 237 suspected cases of cancer were detected, respectively, in 2010.

Dhaliwal said that during the last five years, Roko Cancer has organized 546 camps in Punjab in which 56,815 people were checked and mammography was conducted on 11,891 women suspects. As many as 780 cases of breast cancer were detected while a total of 1,019 were cancer suspects.

In the last couple of years, Roko Cancer has detected 76 cases of breast cancer in Muktsar district, 106 in Faridkot, 152 in Ferozepur and 70 in Moga in the Malwa belt.

School gets its own building after 13 yrs
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, November 24
The government primary school that was razed to the ground by the local Improvement Trust in 1998 to raise a commercial market opposite the Children's Park resumed functioning in its own building today.

Intriguingly, the school had been shifted to another congested government primary school building that was in a dilapidated condition and the kids from economically weaker sections had to sit in the open fearing that the building located in Jain Nagar might collapse any day.

Social Welfare Society chairman Prof BS Chaudhary and the Padho Punjab district coordinator Shanker Chaudhary had persuaded social activist Ravi Sethi and his son Karan Sethi to donate prime land to rebuild the school. The latter made a cash contribution also.

The education department agreed to release Rs 15 lakh for the construction of the school building in the Ekta Colony under the education promotion project. SDM Jasdeep Singh Aulakh, DEO (Elementary) Sandeep Dhuria, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan coordinator Subhash Khunger and Municipal Council president Shiv Raj Goyal also attended the opening ceremony.

The school has been named after Kundan Lal Sethi, a philanthropist and social activist.

Trains cancelled
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 24
In view of the fog, the railways has decided to cancel and partially cancel many trains that pass through Bathinda. As per the railway sources, train no. 19771-19781 that run between Jaipur and Amritsar will remain cancelled between December 20 and January 31, 2012.

Similarly, train no. 19772 and 19782 that run between Amritsar and Jaipur would remain suspended from their services from December 21 to February 1, 2012.

However, train No. 13007 Hawrah-Sriganganagar would be partially suspended between December 20 and January 31, 2011. The train will not run between Mughalsarai and Sriganganagar during the period while train no. 13008 would be suspended from its service between Sriganganagar and Mughalsarai during the period.

The railway has also cancelled train No. 14711-147112 that runs between Haridwar and Sriganganagar from December 20 to January 31.

Further, some passenger trains have also been cancelled with immediate effect but due to repair work. For example, the train no. 54753-54756 that run between Bathinda and Sriganganagar would be cancelled between Abohar and Sriganganagar from November 24, railway sources said.